Decertification

Decertification is the process under which employees may "fire" their union through an election.  EVERY EMPLOYEE has the right to sign petitions and vote in a certification/decertification process (not just union members). You can download the decertification petition here.

This process is set up under the Maine State Employees Labor Relations Act and administered by the Maine Labor Relations Board.  State employees are divided into discrete groups called bargaining units.  Under the law, each unit may elect to have a bargaining agent represent them for collective bargaining purposes.   A bargaining agent could be any type of organization, but typically has been a labor union.   Bargaining agents are certified by the bargaining unit through a petition-election process.  Likewise, bargaining agents can be removed or changed by the same process.  The process is as follows:

1)  Petitions are signed (also called showing of interest) by members of the bargaining unit.  At least 30% of the bargaining unit must sign these within a 6-month period.

2)  A formal MLRB petition (including the forms from above) is filed with the MLRB.

3)  MLRB validates that the petition is in order and arranges an election.  The election will allows have as choices the incumbent bargaining agent (MSEA, in our case), "none" (no agent), and then whatever other agent(s) is/are allowed based on the petitions.

4)  The election is held and MLRB oversees the ballot counting.  A victor must have a 50% + 1 vote majority to be certified as the bargaining agent.  If no agent gets such a majority, a runoff election is held with the two top choices.

If a contract is in place, no formal petition can be filed until 60-90 days prior to the contract's expiration.